McCAFFREY: Helping give a 'Kickstart'

Friday

Mar 21, 2014 at 6:00 AMMar 25, 2014 at 10:34 PM

Kerrie Carnes Salwa of Clinton is not someone who sits back and waits for her dreams to just happen. She was able to fulfill one dream when she and her husband opened a bar, The Spillway, on High Street in Clinton in 2007, and then saw that dream smashed when they had to close The Spillway in early 2012.

Unbowed, Kerrie moved on to her next challenge and wrote a book, called "Two Kids, a House, and a Bar: Tiny Conversations that Probably Saved My Life," about her experiences pursuing her dreams of owning a bar and raising a family and how complex, hectic, and funny life can be when those dreams are realized at once. To help publish the book, Kerrie has enlisted the help of Kickstarter.com — a website that helps artists raise funds for their creative projects. Her campaign to raise the $4,000 needed to edit, print, and market the book ends on Sunday, April 6.

"I decided to use an independent publisher to get my book done," Kerrie told me, "and as a result there are some up-front costs. Kickstarter is an exciting way to get the word out and raise the funds. We have it set up so that people who pledge money to my campaign will get different rewards depending on their level of donation — such as a signed copy of the book for a pledge of $25."

I wasn't familiar with Kerrie's story, so I asked her what the book was about, specifically.

"Well, my husband and I bought the bar," she said. "Then, two months later, we found out I was pregnant. Then, two months after that, we found out I was going to have twins. Then, four months later, we bought a house. My girls were born four months after that.

"So, between running the business, and raising a family, and fixing the house, things were just crazy. Between the bar and the fact that the girls never slept well, I didn't really sleep for about five years. I wonder sometimes if things would have been different if I just could have gotten more sleep.

"When the girls (Natalie and Abby) started talking, we were suddenly having these funny conversations. I would post them on my Facebook page, almost as an outlet to keep myself sane.

"Then I noticed that people started talking about the posts and laughing with me about them. I was surprised, but it was people of all ages telling me how they made sure to check in on my page to get the latest story and have a laugh.

"Everyone told me that I should write a book, but I never took them seriously because I didn't consider myself a writer. Over time, though, I kept finding funny things to put on my page and found that people really responded to what I wrote. So, I started pulling the conversations off Facebook and started compiling them on my computer."

During this time, Kerrie's family began to experience significant health issues and Kerrie started to give back to the community by getting heavily involved with charity work. She and some friends started a local chapter of Breast Intentions, an organization that provides support in the form of helping with bills for women with breast cancer. It was more on her plate, but Kerrie is not one to stand back when something needs to be done.

During this time, the "Tiny Conversations" with her daughters were an escape from her hectic day to day. I asked Kerrie for an example, and she gave me the below:

Abby: Mom, can you believe those people are having a party AGAIN?

Kerrie: That's not a house, love, it's a funeral home.

As the posts continued, people persisted in telling her that she should write a book.

"Finally," she said, "I told myself that over a particular weekend, if at least 10 people told me to write a book that I would do it. It was a great weekend — the type where you see everyone you know — and as a result here we are."

As she writes on her Kickstarter page, "My biggest fear is releasing all of this information and emotion about my family, my family's losses/deaths, as well as very publicly losing my business in small town, USA. I have found that in sharing these stories over the past few years, I have put my kids in a public light. I wasn't really prepared for all that comes along with that. I will have to tackle that problem, for sure, if this project gets picked up. On the other hand, they are truly amazing kids and I would like for people to know them."

For more information, or if you would like to support Kerrie's Kickstarter campaign and help her to realize her dream of publishing a book, please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1991225663/two-kids-a-house-and-a-bar.

Tim McCaffrey is a freelance columnist who lives in Clinton. He can be reached at stged20@gmail.com.